Sheldon Adelson, unscripted

Sheldon Adelson’s personality was on full display during his three-day testimony in a breach of contract case against his company in a Nevada court.

Adelson, a GOP megadonor and one of the richest people in the world, repeatedly made references to his upbringing and personal story as he insisted his company did not owe Hong Kong businessman Richard Suen any money.

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Here are the top quotes from Adelson’s testimony, which frequently went off topic from the case at hand:

“Even successful companies and wealthy people are entitled to justice,” Adelson said, summarizing why he was taking the stand in defense of his company against what he believes is a false claim.

“Actually I would have been a rags-to-riches story, except my parents couldn’t afford the rags … So I’m a less-than-rags-to-riches story,” Adelson said in response to a question from his attorneys about how he grew up poor. “I came from so far from the other side of the tracks that I didn’t know the tracks existed.”

“Had I known what I could have done, I would have gone to school to be a lawyer. So I’m a frustrated lawyer and a frustrated singer,” Adelson said, recounting working as a court reporter, one of his many odd jobs before he became a businessman.

“Your honor, I think you have something in common with my wife. She doesn’t want me to do two things at once,” Adelson said, replying to instructions from the judge that he not take notes while attorneys ask him questions, but rather ask for a minute to write.

“The smirking by the people there is not warranted, have you noticed that?” Adelson said in an aside in the middle of questioning to the judge. “Your client is smirking,” Adelson said to Suen’s lawyers. “I think they’re disruptive in the court and I think his honor has suggested there be no disruptions.”

“By the way when I was sick, I lost 50 pounds, my blood glucose went through the roof and so did my blood pressure. I lost 50 pounds. I don’t want to suffer that again, but I’d like to lose another 50. … At least 30,” Adelson told the court in reference to an illness in the fall of 2001 that kept him from day-to-day operations of his company.

“Drop ‘em like a hot potato … I think he said like a hot dim sum, not a hot potato,” Adelson said of Suen’s advice regarding a potential financing partner in Macau.

“And any time I like my picture on the front cover, I read the article. If I don’t like my picture, I don’t read the article. And that time I liked the picture, I read the article,” Adelson told the jury, responding to a juror’s question about whether Suen alerted his company to the potential for business in Macau. Adelson said the magazine issue that he covered also had an article about gaming in Macau.

“I’m computer illiterate, but I’m up to date. I do have a cell phone,” Adelson said regarding how reachable he was while in Beijing.

“I don’t know which [man] is which, all I know is they sounded very much alike. I can describe two people, and I don’t know which is which. When someone says Su or Zhu to one of us, it sounds very much the same,” Adelson said about a meeting attended by two Chinese associates of Suen’s. “One of the Shus or Zhus was tall and younger, and he wore glasses. And the other one was shorter and he was elderly.”

Suen is seeking $328 million from Las Vegas Sands for failing to compensate him for helping to procure a gaming license in Macau, where Adelson owns five casinos. Suen sued Adelson in 2004 and a jury found in his favor in 2008, but the Nevada Supreme Court overturned the ruling in 2010 and sent it to a second trial.

Adelson was the first witness in the trial, which began last week and is expected to last about four weeks.

A live feed of the trial was provided to POLITICO by Courtroom View Network.